


The Shift

by Anonymous



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Mild Blood, Minor Violence, Science Fiction, Time Loop, Walmart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29871165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A strange light, a guy with a dragon tattoo and a never-ending shift.Or,After touching a strange light at Walmart's storage room Doyoung starts experiencing what appears to be a time loop, and his only ally is the guy who keeps insisting that it's his last day working there.
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Nakamoto Yuta
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: NCT Walmart Fic Fest R1





	The Shift

**Author's Note:**

> This is ridiculous, I'm aware, but I hope you can look past the inaccuracies and enjoy the ride <3
> 
> The song referenced in the fic is [Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5h0qHwNrHk&ab_channel=Radiohead) , and I know I talk "bad" about it but it's actually one of my favorite songs, and the mv takes place at a supermarket so I just had to.

It began with a spark.

There was a moment of pure clarity before the electricity sent Doyoung reeling, head knocking against the shelves as he went crashing to the ground.

A beat of silence.

A single cereal box fell next to him with a loud _plop!_ and the sound echoed in the storage room. 

Doyoung sat up, rubbed his head where it had hit the shelves. He looked down at his other hand, the tips of his fingers burnt, shiny and red, and it only took a moment for the pain to kick in.

" _Fuck_ ," he muttered when he licked them in an attempt to ease the burn, only making it worse. He turned to his left and looked up, towards the vent on the wall. Just a minute before, a bright, multi-colored light had been shining from within, luring Doyoung in like a dumb bug and making him stick his fingers through the bars. The light had vanished instantly, not without leaving a burning kiss on Doyoung's fingers.

 _How odd,_ Doyoung thought. He put the cereal box back in its place and gave the vent one last look before stepping out of the storage room.

The white lights of Walmart hit Doyoung in their full glory, as if he had stepped into a sanitized sun. He winced. Why was everything so… _bright_?

"You okay, Dons?" his co-worker Yuta said. Doyoung stumbled when Yuta patted his back with a little too much force, "I'll miss seeing your cute face every day."

Doyoung scoffed. His eyes were instantly drawn to the tattoo that peeked under the neck of Yuta’s shirt — a simple, abstract figure resembling a dragon. "Right,” he said, quickly looking away, “you're finally leaving this hell."

"Yeah, but at least I've got a reason to visit."

Doyoung was too dazed by the burn and the fall to be annoyed at Yuta's wink, so he just let it slide. It was Yuta's last day working there, after all. His last day... Something about the thought made him uneasy.

"What happened to your hand?"

As if summoned by Yuta's words, his fingers stung again, "It's nothing, I'll just get some ice."

"I've heard applying toothpaste also helps."

" _T_ _hat_ sounds practical."

Doyoung walked away before Yuta could reply. There was a depressing pop song coming from the speakers that lured a headache from the depths of Doyoung's brain.

_Her green plastic watering can, for her fake chinese rubber plant, in the fake plastic earth._

Doyoung winced for the third time in five minutes. He wasn't kidding when he said that thing to Yuta. Walmart really _was_ Hell. There was something about that particular day, though, that awakened murderous tendencies inside of him. He was probably pissed because of the burn. But what was that light he had seen hiding behind the vent…?

" _Dooooyoung!_ " 

Doyoung closed his eyes and sighed, a pack of ice held tightly against his fingers. When he opened them again the manifestation of Evil was standing before him, pout in full display, eyes big and round and filled with their usual deceiving shimmer. "Where's the soda?" Donghyuck said in a tiny voice. 

Doyoung groaned, "We've been through this!"

"It's not my fault that I've got low sugar levels and a short-span memory!"

Doyoung hid behind his hand, then flinched both from the cold and the burn.

" _Pleasee_ ," Donghyuck insisted, "It's just my second week here!"

"That can't be right, I feel like I've known you forever. And no, that wasn't a compliment."

He ended up guiding Donghyuck to the beverages aisle, this one skipping instead of walking. It probably was his first job. The kid looked like he was still in highschool.

"Why is your blood sugar low?" Doyoung said as he watched him gulp down a can of coke, "You had another can just when our shift started."

Donghyuck wiped his lips with his sleeve and shrugged, "Must be all this walking."

Doyoung snorted. He took the can away from Donghyuck just as this one was taking it to his lips, "Alright, you look healthy enough, back to work."

"But—"

"Now. Shift's almost over, anyway."

Doyoung looked at his wristwatch and felt his shoulders relax. It was 5:59 pm. Apparently he had lost track of time, because there was only one minute left before their shift ended. With a resigned sigh he gave the can back to Donghyuck, and just as this one was giving him a smug smile and mocking him in a dull voice a wave of electricity ran through his body, and everything went dark.

  
  
  
Doyoung opened his eyes with a startle. He stumbled backwards, felt the cans on the shelf behind him rattle as he held onto it.

"What…?"

Donghyuck was nowhere to be seen. Wait, why was he at the canned foods aisle? Had he passed out?

He blinked a few times and looked to his side. A lady was talking to him. She was asking where the milk was. 

Doyoung walked her to the dairy aisle even though his shift had already ended, his head slow and dizzy, the light from the fridges harsh on his eyes. It was lucky he was already heading out. 

He was fantasizing about the nap he was going to take when he saw Donghyuck at the end of the aisle, a new can of coke in his hand. 

"This isn't a buffet!" Doyoung yelled as he rushed to his side, "Come on, you just had one full can!"

Donghyuck gave him his pout again, "I did not! And it's not my fault I've got low sugar levels!"

"Yeah, you've already said that. Why are you still hanging here, though? Don't you have homework to do?"

" _Haha,_ very funny. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go do my job like the responsible adult that I clearly am."

With that Donghyuck walked away, looking over his shoulder to blow a raspberry at him. Doyoung just frowned. What was up with him?

Whatever, his shift was finally over and that meant he could change out of those hideous clothes and go home. He started for the locker room, just past the… was it aisle seven? No, that wasn't it. But then…

Doyoung stopped right on his tracks. Something turned in his stomach. Why couldn't he remember where the locker room was?

"You okay, Dons?" Yuta manifested next to him, and Doyoung stumbled when he patted Doyoung's back with a little too much force, "I'll miss seeing your cute face every day."

"What?"

Yuta looked at him for a moment before letting out a laugh, "It's my last day! Do you care so little about me that you don't remember?"

"What are you talking about, we _just_ had—"

"Oh, what happened to your hand?"

Doyoung gaped at him. Then he shook his head, "Are you pranking me right now? Is this a prank?"

"Uh… no? Did you burn yourself? I've heard applying toothpaste helps with the pain."

Doyoung huffed. He walked away before Yuta could say anything else. Why was everyone acting so weird?

Then a thought crossed his mind, and he turned around again, "Hey, Yuta… where are the locker rooms?"

"The locker rooms?" Yuta looked upwards as he thought, narrowing his eyes, "Were they... past aisle two? No, that can't be. Then… huh, I can't remember either. Funny."

"Yeah… funny."

"Guess my brain got rid of that data before my shift even ends." Yuta gave him an apologetic shrug and walked away. What was he talking about? His shift had already ended. 

Doyoung's fingers stung again. He blew on them softly as he looked at his watch, and then stopped breathing altogether. It was 1:13 pm.

No, Doyoung's watch was wrong. Of course it was wrong. It had broken when Doyoung fell in the storage room, surely, or when he got kicked by a wave of electricity after touching that strange light…

But then why were all his co-workers still there?

After thinking about it for a few minutes, Doyoung decided it was a prank targeted at him. Why else would his manager yell at him when he saw Doyoung heading for the exit? It was a prank, and they were all in it. But the joke was on them. Doyoung wasn't going to give them the satisfaction to act shocked. No, this was going to be the single most boring prank in existence. They would be so bummed, they wouldn't want to mess with Doyoung ever again.

So, Doyoung went on about his day as any other day. It wasn't hard. He wasn't tired, even if he had already worked for six hours under the unforgiving lights of Walmart. He wasn't even hungry.

Near the end of his "shift" Doyoung had already forgotten about the prank. What a dumb prank, anyway. Why keep it going for so long? Why had everyone agreed to work for six extra hours just to have a blast that, well, never really happened?

His watch read 5:55 pm when Donghyuck approached him.

" _Dooooyoung!_ " 

Doyoung waited for him with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. Was Donghyuck the one who was going to tell him about the prank? Was he hoping to laugh at Doyoung's miserable face? He was going to be very disappointed.

"What can I help you with?" Doyoung asked in an overly sweet voice.

Donghyuck gave him a weird look, "Um… where's the soda?"

Doyoung blinked. "What?"

"I know we've been through this but it's not my fault I've got a short-span memory!"

Doyoung stared at him for a moment. They were pushing through to the end, huh? Alright.

Doyoung guided Donghyuck to the beverages aisle, this one skipping instead of walking. Doyoung glanced at him with a frown. Something about the whole situation was making him uneasy. 

"You know, you can stop faking now," Doyoung said as he watched him gulp down the coke, "I know you're pulling a prank."

Donghyuck wiped his lips with his sleeve and raised an eyebrow at him, "Huh?"

That depressing pop song started blaring through the speakers again,

_Her green plastic watering can, for her fake chinese rubber plant, in the fake plastic earth._

Doyoung winced. What an annoying song. "Are you recording this? Is this for some TV show? Because if that's the case, it's not going to get a lot of views."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

_It wears her out, it wears her out._

Doyoung located one of the speakers on the ceiling and looked at it with rage enough to burn. He was seriously thinking of taking the can from Donghyuck's hand to throw it at it when a wave of electricity ran through his body, and then everything went dark.

  
  
  
Doyoung opened his eyes with a startle, bumping against the shelves with cans behind him and falling to the floor. 

He remained frozen for a moment. Then he pressed his hands against the cold tiles and looked around, his vision blurring in flashes of white.

He checked his watch. 1:00 pm. "No… no…"

He hadn't realized a few cans had fallen around him, making a racket, but then Yuta approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "You okay, Dons?"

Doyoung shut his eyes and shook his head, taking his burnt fingers to his temple, "What… what is going on…"

Before he knew it Yuta was helping him up and guiding him somewhere, away from the bright lights. Doyoung leaned on him and let himself be carried, his knees threatening to give in.

"... seven in, eleven out… that's it, Dons, you're doing great… seven in, eleven out…"

Doyoung opened his eyes, taking a deep breath. The first thing he saw was Yuta’s dragon tattoo peeking from his shirt, as if staring at him. Then he saw Yuta's big, worried eyes, and when Doyoung looked around he realized they were in the storage room.

"Are you feeling better?" 

Doyoung nodded. His heartbeats were slowing down, but his guts kept on twisting and twisting. "Yuta… You don't work here anymore."

"I've still got six more hours, sadly." Yuta let out a breathy laugh, "Almost sounded like a prisoner or something."

Doyoung hid his face in his hands. "Yuta. You had six hours left twelve hours ago. Your shift has already ended, _my_ shift has already ended…"

Yuta put his hand on Doyoung's shoulder again, and Doyoung realized he had started shaking, "Do you want me to call someone? Your… parents, or partner, or a friend—"

"I'm not _sick._ "

"—or, we can just stay here. What can they do, fire us? I've already quit and you're the employee of the month. We're untouchable."

Doyoung lowered his hands and looked at him. It was so dim, so different from the bright white Hell, he couldn't tell where his pupils ended and his irises began. Then he looked past him, at the vent on the opposite wall. His fingers stung with the memory of that alien, multi-colored light, and a shiver ran up his spine. "I think— I think I've done something. There was this light, right in that vent, and I touched it, and then— then everything started to get weird, and everyone is acting as if nothing is wrong and this fucking shift never _ends_ —"

"Hey, hey, it's okay."

Doyoung had started to breathe faster again. He looked at his watch and turned the green light on so he could see the time. It was 1:17 pm.

"That strange light did something to me and now I'm _stuck_ here, only... I can't remember ever walking out of this place." Doyoung shivered as the realization fell upon him. "I can't even remember where I live."

No one said anything for a while. Yuta kept rubbing circles on Doyoung's back, his head bowed in thought.

"You know," Yuta said, "I can't remember where I live either."

  
  
  
They agreed that the best course of action was getting the hell away from that Walmart. As they made their way to the exit Doyoung looked at his co-workers. Everything seemed so normal. The Walmart remained the same as always, the floors clean and shiny, the products perfectly arranged on their shelves — but there was an insidious strangeness about it. A normalcy almost _too_ normal, unnatural, like an old vase without cracks. Doyoung wondered how he'd never noticed before.

When they reached the exit they were intercepted by two security guards who were blocking the doors. Had there always been guards?

"Doyoung here is feeling a little dizzy," Yuta said, putting his charismatic persona on. He patted Doyoung on the back, "We just wanted to get some air."

"After your shift ends," one of the guards said. Their face was set as stone.

"It'll be just a moment. Five minutes, tops."

The guards simultaneously reached for their belts, and Doyoung noticed they had stun sticks. They didn't take them out, but the motion was enough to make Doyoung flinch. "After your shift ends," the guard repeated.

Doyoung turned to Yuta, eyes wide. Yuta didn't even bat an eye. "As you please, officers," he said, then steered Doyoung back to the aisles.

"Yuta, I'm starting to freak out."

Yuta rubbed his back again. Maybe he'd never stopped in the first place. "Let's try the emergency exits."

The emergency exits were locked. It was absurd. 

"So, we can't go out," Yuta said as they went back to the storage room, "we can't remember anything about our lives, and you feel like you're stuck in some sort of time loop."

"Maybe it _is_ a time loop." As soon as Yuta closed the door Doyoung sat down again, hands pulling at his hair, "Maybe, by touching that light, I doomed us all. Or maybe I became _aware_ of an existing time loop by touching that light."

"Has your hand healed? Since you've touched it?"

Doyoung looked down at his fingers. The burn was slightly better, although it still hurt. He nodded.

"Not a time loop," Yuta concluded.

"Then why do you all keep saying the same things?" 

Yuta just shrugged. Doyoung frowned at him, "Why are you so calm about this? This is terrible!"

"Well, at least one of us has to be in control of the situation, and your face has been paper white since I found you shaking in the canned foods aisle."

Doyoung shot him a glare. He checked his watch. 2:05 pm. "We still have four hours before this thing resets. I say we ask the other workers if they also can't remember—"

"No." Doyoung was about to complain, but Yuta raised his hand, "Think about it. There's a reason why those guards want to keep us in here… I don't think you're supposed to be _aware_ , as you said. If we tell everyone about this there will be chaos, and whoever's in control will make sure none of us _are_ aware."

Doyoung let out a long sigh and rubbed his eyes, "This is crazy. This is completely crazy."

Yuta peeked through the door of the storage room, a streak of white painting half his face. "I think we should play it cool," he said, "Collect information, but overall act as if everything was normal."

"There's nothing _normal_ about this!"

Yuta closed the door again and looked at him. Doyoung tried to hold his gaze, but ended up looking away. It was so stupid, maybe Doyoung was simply dreaming. "And what happens when it resets?" Doyoung said, "I explain everything to you, again? How do I know you will believe me?"

"I already have, haven't I?"

  
  
  
Doyoung agreed to Yuta's idea, and as this one looked in the storage room for vents and another light he could touch to become _aware_ , Doyoung kept on doing his job as if everything was fine. But he was restless. He observed everyone around him with paranoid eyes, looking for signs of awareness in his co-workers, glancing at the exit every now and then to check if it was still guarded. Even Donghyuck noticed something was wrong with him, and was fast to point out how pale Doyoung looked and asked if he had seen a ghost in the storage room. He wasn't that far off.

At 3:16 Yuta approached to tell him he hadn't found any other lights, but that he was going to look again later just in case. He didn't say anything else, insisting that they shouldn't act suspicious or else the guards might notice something was off. It was so absurd, for a moment Doyoung considered the prank theory again. Of course, it was more of a desperate hope than anything.

At 5:55 pm he waited for Donghyuck to approach him again.

" _Dooooyoung!_ " Donghyuck spotted him from the end of aisle four and trotted towards him, "Where's the— oh."

Doyoung already had a can of coke in his hand, "Low sugar?"

"Yeah." 

Donghyuck took the can with suspicion and began chugging it down, as if fearing Doyoung might take it away. Doyoung just watched him. Was he also unable to remember anything besides that Walmart? 

"How old are you, Donghyuck?"

Donghyuck wiped his lips with his sleeve and raised an eyebrow at him, "Why? How old are _you_?"

Doyoung huffed and checked the time. 5:59 pm.

"I'm sixteen," Donghyuck said. "So? How old are _you_?"

"Nineteen," Doyoung said immediately.

Donghyuck was the one who huffed now, "Sure, grandpa."

Doyoung looked up at him with a frown. The depressing pop song started playing, and before Doyoung could say anything a wave of electricity ran through his body, and then everything went dark.

  
  
  
  
Yuta did believe him the second time, and also the third and fourth. He didn't need much convincing either, just like the first time, and Doyoung wondered why Yuta had that blind trust in someone he barely knew. In his place, Doyoung wouldn't have believed such a tale that easily.

Their plan, so far, was to check all the possible exits and how guarded they were. Emergency exits were already crossed off as possible escape routes, as well as the main entrance. The back door was also guarded and there weren't any windows in all the facility, which was odd on its own. The only feasible option was the loading dock.

Exiting through the dock was tricky. It wasn't guarded, but the only way out was if you were a van driver. The gates opened after scanning the driver's face, and there was a second room with a second gate where Yuta and Doyoung suspected it was regulated if there were people trying to go out on foot. The first gate always closed before they could see anything else.

"So, we only need one of the drivers' faces," Yuta said in a low voice, throwing a furtive look to both sides. They were restocking the oranges. "Should be easy enough."

"Or, we could sneak in one of the vans? Isn't _that_ a sensible option?"

An orange slipped from Doyoung's hands, rolling away and bumping against the foot of a customer. Doyoung looked away quickly.

"We _could_ ," Yuta said, "but then we'd have to wait until they open the doors of the van again and what if they're armed? No, I say we knock them out."

"They're _drivers._ "

"I thought we'd already established that nothing is quite what it seems around here."

"Sorry, I think you dropped this."

They both jumped at the new voice, and they turned so quickly another group of oranges fell to the floor. The customer looked at the oranges with concern, still holding the one that had bumped against their foot. Doyoung grabbed it, "Thank you. Don't worry about that, we won't put those on display."

The customer nodded, a strained smile on their face as they looked from Doyoung to Yuta. They stared at Yuta’s neck long enough to be noticable before walking away. 

Yuta's gaze followed them, his eyes narrowed, "Do you think they know?"

"Know what?"

But Yuta didn't elaborate. Instead, he turned to Doyoung and gave him a serious look, "I need you to promise me something. Promise me you'll always remind me of this, that you won't give up or leave me in the dark, because… if something is going on, something _bad_ , I don't want to be oblivious about it. And you shouldn't carry all that weight on your own."

Doyoung started at him for a moment. Again, he was confused as to why it felt like Yuta was putting too much faith on Doyoung. But, in the end, they weren’t complete strangers. They shared something, even if Yuta's memory was always wiped after 6pm. He nodded, "I promise."

  
  
  
_Her green plastic watering can, for her fake chinese rubber plant, in the fake plastic earth._

Doyoung watched Donghyuck chug down the coke for the eleventh time since he had become _aware_. This one noticed, and wiped his lips with his sleeve as he gave him a look, " _What?_ "

"Why do you work here?"

Donghyuck looked at him for a moment. Then he shrugged, "Experience? Isn't that why all the kids my age start working?"

"You tell me."

_It wears her out, it wears her out._

"Why do _you_ work here?"

Doyoung looked at the time. 5:59 pm. "I can't remember."

"Then you should quit."

"It's not that easy."

_It wears her out, it wears her out._

Donghyuck hummed, "Yeah, an old man like you... you can't afford the luxury of quitting whenever you want!"

"I'm not _old,_ I'm just three years older than you."

Donghyuck's laugh kept ringing in his ears as the electricity wave took over him, and then everything went dark.

  
  
  
  


"Yuta?"

"Hmm?"

Doyoung scooted closer to him, holding his knees to his chest. They were in the storage room, and Yuta was focused on a variety of objects he had gathered on the floor: an electric razor, a few tweezers, a remote. He was trying to _build a weapon_ , a taser of sorts, so they could stun one of the drivers. It wasn't going so well.

"Why do you call me Dons? No one calls me that but you always do, it's the first thing you say to me every day."

Yuta shrugged, "You look like a Dons. I can call you Doyoung if you—"

"No, no— it's okay. It… feels right, I guess." Doyoung shook his head and checked the time. 5:26 pm. Yuta's taser buzzed, and Doyoung looked at it with a wince, "Are you sure that's gonna work?"

"Sure! We just gotta test it."

"Uh, _how?"_

Yuta pointed the taser at him and Doyoung jumped, then glared at Yuta when he started laughing, "God, why are you always so _chill_ about this?"

"It's hard to feel bad when I can't even remember what my life was like." The taser buzzed once more. Yuta bumped it against the floor a few times, "That alone should be enough to make me feel bad, shouldn't it? But I don't really feel anything. It's funny."

"No, it's not. We don't even know what happens to us after 6pm. If it wasn't for that light… if I hadn't touched it—"

"But you did." Yuta pointed the taser at him and Doyoung jumped, again. "We're gonna get out of here."

  
  
  


It took another three days for Yuta's tasers to work. They tested them on a marshmallow, which wasn't ideal but their options were limited after Doyoung had threatened to leave Yuta in the dark about the situation if he tried them on a human being, including Yuta himself. Everything was ready for them to escape, they only had to wait for the shift to reset so they could have more time in case something went wrong.

Doyoung hid the tasers in the storage room vent, the same one where he'd seen that strange light all those days before. "What do you think it was?" he asked Yuta as he pushed the tasers further inside the vent, so they wouldn't be visible, "That light I saw."

"Maybe it was an angel."

"What would an _angel_ be doing at Walmart?"

"I don't know, what _are_ you doing at Walmart?"

Doyoung rolled his eyes with a sigh. He was putting the vent’s lid back in place when he felt a deep sting on his nape, as if Yuta had poked him with his finger, and he let out a little yell as he turned to him, " _T_ _he hell you do that for_?"

"Give me your hand."

"Why?"

"Just give me your hand."

Doyoung huffed, but did as he was told. Yuta guided Doyoung’s hand towards his neck, right where he had poked him. Doyoung's breath hitched, "What— what is that?" He brushed his fingers over his skin, feeling the small rectangle that was sticking out. Something twisted in his stomach, "Yuta…?"

"I think it's a chip. I have one too."

Doyoung pressed down on the rectangle, and that same pain rushed from his neck to the rest of his body — almost like electricity. 

"We have to take them out," Yuta said.

Doyoung turned to him, wide eyed, "You don't mean— _pluck them out_?"

"We _have_ to! What if they track us down after we escape?"

Doyoung looked to the side with a grimace. A chip implanted in their necks? What _was_ that Walmart, really?

Doyoung's chip was the first to go. It was a gritty process — Doyoung had to bite on a piece of cloth not to scream, tears running down his cheeks as Yuta used a sanitized box cutter to cut his skin open and some tweezers to take the chip out. But, all in all, it was fast.

"It's half burnt," Yuta said after cleaning the blood off the chip, holding it in front of his eyes, "Looks like they have little claws, so to speak, that cling to the flesh. Apparently yours debilitated after you touched that light."

"You mean yours will be more attached?"

Yuta nodded, calm as always. Doyoung checked the time. 5:46 pm. "Maybe we should continue tomorrow."

"But tomorrow we escape." 

"We’ll have six hours to do that."

Yuta handed him the cutter anyway and turned around, "Just try. If it doesn't go out as easily as yours, we'll do it tomorrow."

Doyoung took the cutter, chewing the inside of his cheek. It felt wrong to do it with so little time left, even if Yuta had taken Doyoung's chip out in about three minutes. He made the first cut, a superficial one, barely scratching the surface. Yuta noticed right away, "Go all in, Dons, I'll be okay."

"Sorry, I'm a little nervous."

Doyoung checked the time. 5:48 pm.

He took a deep breath, then sunk the cutter in Yuta's skin. Yuta let out a groan, muffled by the cloth he quickly put in his mouth, a thread of blood already running down his neck. Doyoung bit his lip and grabbed the tweezers. It wasn't hard to close them around the chip, but when he pulled — that's when he knew he wouldn't be able to do it in less than ten minutes. Yuta groaned louder, closing his hands in tight fists. "Yuta, it hasn't even moved. We'll do it tomorrow."

Yuta shook his head, his eyes shut. Doyoung took a deep breath. He pulled again, and again, Yuta's groans turning into wails, the dragon on his neck pulsating every time Yuta contracted his muscles, as if it were alive. But the chip remained in place. It was as if Doyoung was trying to take off one of Yuta’s limbs just by pulling at it. "I think I'll need bigger tweezers, or maybe cut out some more flesh— God, this is _insane_."

" _Just rip it off,_ " Yuta said through the cloth.

But it was no use. It only made Yuta cry louder and they couldn't afford being caught, not so close to the end of the shift. Blood kept oozing out the cut, staining Yuta's uniform. Doyoung pressed some tissues over it, "That's it, we'll do it tomorrow. We’ll put a bandaid on and hopefully no one will notice—"

"Give me the tweezers, I'll do it myself."

"No, that's not going to happen."

" _Please,_ Dons, I know I can do it."

Doyoung glanced at the door nervously. “Fine. Just— don’t pass out or anything.”

Yuta had no mercy on his neck. He pulled so hard the cut on his skin started to get bigger, making the area around it even redder. Doyoung dug his nails in his palms, unable to rip his eyes off, but then something forced him to look at the door.

_Her green plastic watering can, for her fake chinese rubber plant, in the fake plastic earth._

Doyoung looked at his watch. 5:59 pm. “Fuck, we’re out of time, Yuta—”

Doyoung reached for the tweezers, but it was too late. Just as he placed his hands over Yuta's, a wave of electricity took over his body, running from his hands to the rest of his limbs, freezing him in place before sending him to the ground. 

Everything went dark.

  
  
  


Doyoung opened his eyes with a startle. The bloody tweezers fell to the floor, the sound echoing in the storage room. 

He was still conscious.

He checked the time and let out a breathy laugh. 6pm. “Yuta, I think we might have fixed the—” Doyoung looked up, and his words died in his throat. Yuta was standing up, staring at the wall with a blank face and dead eyes.

“Yuta?” Doyoung scrambled up and shook him by the shoulders, but this one didn’t even blink. “Yuta!”

Yuta moved. He walked past Doyoung as if he didn't exist, dragging his feet, lips slightly parted. 

Doyoung stood frozen with dread. Yuta was heading for the door. Without thinking, Doyoung rushed to the vent and grabbed one of the tasers before following him out of the storage room.

Everything seemed normal. Walmart was still functioning, white lights turned to the max, customers pushing their shopping carts, the depressing pop song still playing on the radio. But the _workers…_ The workers were gone.

No one even glanced at him and Yuta. They must as well have been invisible, even though Yuta was still bleeding from his neck and walking as if he was a literal zombie. 

" _Yuta_ ," Doyoung tried again in a low voice, shaking his arm, " _Yuta, wake up._ "

He considered tasing him out of his trance, but then Yuta made a turn and Doyoung's heart leapt to his throat. In front of guarded double doors, and lined up with equally blank faces, stood the rest of their co-workers.

Doyoung hid behind the shelves but he wasn't fast enough to grab Yuta, who kept on walking to get in line with the rest of the workers. Doyoung cursed. What was going on? Why were they acting like that?

He spied from behind the shelves, the taser held tightly in his hand. The workers stood there like statues, lined up in front of the door as if waiting for something. There was a small group of customers at a safe distance, most of them parents with their children, pointing at the workers and whispering to each other. 

Doyoung chewed nervously on his lip. What if Yuta didn't come back? What if the guards noticed he'd been trying to take out his chip and they did something to him?

There was no time to hesitate. He hid the taser in his jeans and under his shirt and joined the flock of workers, emulating their dry steps and getting in line behind Yuta. From beyond the double doors Doyoung started to hear footsteps, and the hushed voices of the customers around them rose in volume.

People started coming out of the room. Workers, wearing the Walmart uniform and the same blank, unfocused expression as the rest, all walking in unison like a group of toy soldiers. It made Doyoung sick. Then the pop song stopped playing, replaced by an artificial voice coming from the speakers.

" _Today’s shift has been delayed but it will be completed in a moment,"_ the voice said. _"We're sorry if we've caused you any inconveniences. Thank you for choosing Walmart._ "

Then his line started moving, and as Doyoung got closer to the door he got to see a distant green light glowing from inside. 

Doyoung almost halted. He knew that light. He'd seen it countless times, even if he didn't have any memory of it. He knew it only got brighter the closer you got, and that what awaited behind those doors wasn't a room, but stairs — stairs leading straight to a green Hell.

One of the kids in the crowd started crying, followed by an adult voice, _'See, my love? This is why you have to be a good boy and do as Mother says.'_

The doors closed behind Doyoung, and everything went dark. 

Doyoung felt something twist in his stomach. The only light came from downstairs, that sickly green light, luring them in like a siren at the end of a cave. He heard footsteps behind him, strong footsteps, not dry like the other ones — a guard. 

It was too late to turn back now. Doyoung willed his face to remain stoic, his breathing to be calm despite the fear that was gripping his throat, and focused on the back of Yuta's head as they made their descent. With every step the taser in his pants sunk into his belly, a comforting reminder that he wasn't defenseless but that also raised a question inside of him — was it going to be enough to protect him?

It wasn't his brain who remembered the room at the end of the stairs. It was his body.

His insides turned so fast he almost fell to the ground. Rows and rows of transparent, casket-sized pods were placed on the floor, each of them filled with a glowing green substance from where the light was coming from. Doyoung knew he had seen them before. He knew, because his body was instantly filled with the urge to run away. 

Images played before his eyes and his skin crawled with the familiarity of them — images of the workers breaking the line to stand by the pods, of the tubes that connected the pods to the walls, of the masks that hang above them like spiders clinging from their webs. And because of that familiarity he didn’t stop walking when Yuta left for one of the pods, because his feet knew they had to keep on going for two more rows. They knew, guided by some buried muscle memory, that his pod was the seventh to the left.

Doyoung looked down at his pod and coughed. The substance reeked of plastic and the glow was unnaturally strong, fluorescent, almost like acid. He spotted Donghyuck a few rows ahead of him, his face devoid of its usual mischievousness and replaced by a lifeless stare. _How did someone so young end up in a place like this?_ Doyoung thought, _How did_ I _end up in a place like this?_

The workers started taking off their clothes, not even bothering to fold them and simply leaving them on the floor next to their pods. Doyoung looked at the guard. They were still standing by the stairs, but even if Doyoung's row was the seventh they would still notice if Doyoung acted any different. So he imitated them.

Once more, Doyoung's body remembered when his mind couldn't, reacting to the cold with familiar shivers. He made sure to leave the taser out of view, hoping that the guard would leave before Doyoung had to do what was the only next logical step. But the guard was still there. And so the workers, as Doyoung had been fearing, stepped into their pods.

It was hard to suppress his need to scream when he stepped inside. The green substance wrapped his body in a cold so gelid it felt hot. His teeth started rattling. His limbs went frozen and numb. 

_I should have stayed in the storage room. Fuck, I should have—_

Doyoung looked up at the mask hanging from the ceiling. Did he have to put it on? No one was reaching for their masks. But if they were there, and the pods were filled to the brim with green liquid...

As if summoned the mask dropped in front of him, still dangling from the ceiling, the plastic big enough to cover his face. Doyoung put it on with trembling hands. What would happen when he sunk his head in the acid, like the rest of the workers were doing? Was his brain going to freeze too?

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and went under.

It was Hell. He wanted to scream, wanted to get out right away but the guard was still there, Doyoung could see them through the foggy mask and the walls of the pod. 

Maybe this was how Doyoung was going to die. 

“ _Open,_ ” a voice said, so close to him his heart jumped. It was coming from the back of the pod. “ _Open.”_

Before he could think what the voice meant, the tube that connected the mask to the ceiling pressed against his lips and he gasped, giving it access to his mouth. It went straight to his throat.

Doyoung started choking. The tube went down and down his throat with the certainty of a machine, then down his neck, then down his chest—

“ _Sleep,_ ” the voice said, “ _Sleep._ ”

Doyoung ripped the mask off, forcing the tube out of his mouth and sitting up with a violent cough. He gasped, felt his eyes burn with tears and with the sting of the acid, his heart pounding with dread, _The guard, the guard…_

But the guard wasn’t there anymore. The room was empty.

Doyoung didn’t waste a second.

He scrambled out of the pod and put his clothes back on, trembling from head to toe, unable to feel his fingers when he closed them around the taser. 

Yuta was laying still under the acid, his eyes closed. Doyoung sat him up and ripped his mask off, then started to take the tube from his mouth, his hands shaking, his hair still dripping freezing acid. “Yuta… Yuta, wake up...”

Yuta woke up with a cough, and Doyoung stepped back just as he coughed out some slimy, black liquid.

“Are you okay?” Doyoung said, “Do you remember?”

Yuta looked around as Doyoung helped him out of the pod, his face pale. “Where are we? Did I take off my chip?”

“No, but Yuta… This is so much worse than we imagined. We need to get out of here, _now_. I’ll get Donghyuck while you put your clothes on.” He rushed to the other pods, trying to recall which one was Donghyuck’s, “We’ll have to improvise our escape but maybe if we wake them all up—”

The whole room turned red, and an alarm started blaring, “ _Worker out of their pod, worker out of their pod, worker—”_

“ _Fuck!_ ”

“Doyoung?”

Doyoung ran desperately from one pod to the other, “It was one of these, I _just_ saw him—”

“ _Worker out of their pod, worker out of their pod—”_

“Doyoung, we need to go!”

“But Donghyuck—”

A door opened at the end of the room and Doyoung jumped. Then Yuta's hand closed around his wrist, “He’ll be okay, we’ll come back for him. Come on!"

They ran to the stairs and up, the steps now red instead of green, making it easier to stumble over their feet. Doyoung didn't look back but he heard the footsteps of at least three people.

"It's locked!" Doyoung said when they reached the door. There was a rectangular screen the size of a hand next to it, "Fuck, Yuta—"

"Give me the taser."

Doyoung did, and Yuta shoved it in the panel with no hesitation. There was a mess of sparks and smoke, and a moment later the door moved under Doyoung's weight, "What the—?"

"Let's go!"

It almost hurt going back to the blinding lights of Walmart. Doyoung closed his eyes on instinct, tripping over his feet when Yuta grabbed his hand and ran to the loading dock.

There was only one van in the dock, a worker unloading boxes with their back to them. Yuta tased them without mercy, and as the worker fell to the ground he let out a triumphant laugh, "It works!"

"Yuta!"

"They'll be fine."

The driver jumped when they saw Yuta but their shock didn't last long. Yuta tased them before they could even scream.

Now they only had to go through with their original plan. Doyoung got behind the wheel, sharing the seat with the unconscious driver and holding them up so that the gate could scan their face. Yuta got in the van just as the gate started to go up.

"Why is no one coming to stop us?" Doyoung said.

"Don't jinx it."

The gate opened all the way and Doyoung pushed the driver out of the van with a wince, and as he closed the door—

Doyoung's hands stilled over the steering wheel, gaze stuck on the side-view mirror.

"Dons, what is it? The gate is open, let's go!"

Doyoung shook his head and drove forward, into the room with the second gate. The first one started closing as soon as they got in.

Doyoung looked in the mirror again. "Yuta," he said, trying to remain calm, "how old are you?"

"Nineteen."

Something in his stomach turned. "Look in the mirror."

Yuta stared at him for a moment, a puzzled look on his face. Then he did as Doyoung said.

The second gate started opening, letting in the golden light of the afternoon. Doyoung pursed his lips and looked forward, hands tight around the steering wheel, a strong bitterness rising up his throat.

Yuta wouldn't take his eyes off the mirror. "How long have we been here?"

The gate stopped moving about two thirds up the way and an alarm went off.

" _Fuck_ ," Yuta said, "Dons—"

But Doyoung had already floored the pedal and the roof screeched as the van squeezed under the gate, halting them for a moment before the van was finally free.

Doyoung didn't know what he was expecting to find. He couldn't remember anything about his past, but somehow he was still shocked when his vision adapted to the setting sun and he saw the landscape in front of him — buildings insanely high and slim, all of them painted in a blinding, sanitized white, stabbing the red sky with their pointy roofs, roads that went so high up Doyoung couldn't see where they ended, and a variety of vehicles going from normal cars to rides he had never seen in his life.

"Where the hell are we?" Doyoung said. "Yuta?"

He turned to him and a strangled sound left his throat. Yuta's body was completely limp, as if he had passed out, only the seat belt keeping his body up. His head was hanging forward and there was a thread of blood flowing from where his chip was.

"Yuta!"

The car horns made him look to the front again and he took a sharp turn to the right, barely avoiding a collision with a truck. He started to panic, screaming Yuta's name, watching how Walmart started to get smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror only to be replaced by the red and blue of the police cars.

" _K_ _im Doyoung, stop the vehicle or we'll open fire._ "

Doyoung sped up, weaving through the traffic like a madman. 

"Yuta, please wake up!"

He didn't even know where to go. He could only keep driving, hoping to leave the cops behind. Why were they making such a fuss for an ordinary Walmart employee?

A black van came out of nowhere and Doyoung hit the breaks. The van stopped right in front of him, blocking his way, and before Doyoung could react a group of people started to get out from the side door, all of them carrying guns and wearing handkerchiefs that covered their faces. Doyoung looked through the mirror and he saw a motorcycle was blocking that way too.

He turned to Yuta and shook him, calling his name again, but he wouldn't wake up and the armed people were already heading for the van.

"Kim Doyoung—"

Doyoung grabbed the taser and turned around, pointing it at the person who had opened his door, "Stay back!" he yelled, even though he knew the taser wasn't going to be of much use this time.

The stranger raised their hands, "It's alright, we're here to—"

"Stay back!"

Someone opened Yuta's door and before Doyoung could do anything they were carrying him out of the van, "No, stop! Yuta!"

"Doyoung, look at me."

Doyoung turned to the stranger, still pointing the taser with a trembling hand. The stranger took a step closer. "A green plastic watering can," they said, their voice muffled by the handkerchief, "for a fake chinese rubber plant."

Doyoung lowered the taser. Those words. They were the lyrics of that song.

The police sirens were getting closer, and the masked people had already carried Yuta's unconscious body inside the black van. The stranger extended a gloved hand towards him, slowly. Doyoung took it.

The masked people were yelling things at each other, rushing Doyoung and the stranger in the van before closing the door and driving away.

The van was so dim Doyoung couldn't see a thing. Panic took over him again. Had he done the right thing? Had he doomed himself to a fate grimmer than the one he was escaping?

Doyoung fell down as the driver took a sharp turn, bumping his head and getting trapped between the door and another body. There was a choir of curses and then a gloved hand was holding Doyoung's, the same hand that had guided him inside.

"Sorry about that," the stranger said, helping Doyoung to sit up, "Our driver is still young."

" _I_ _can hear you!_ "

Doyoung looked around, blinking as he adapted to the lack of light. There were at least six people squished in there. His shoulders relaxed when he found Yuta on the opposite corner, even though he was still unconscious. "We got rid of his chip," the one who was next to him said, holding up a pair of tweezers, "Looks like you'd already done half the job."

The stranger patted Doyoung on the shoulder, "Of course they did, we couldn't expect any less."

" _Any less_?" Doyoung said, "What do you mean? Who are you?"

The stranger sat down in front of him. They were still wearing their handkerchief so Doyoung could only see their eyes. "May I ask you to do something first?" they said. Doyoung gave them a wary look, but nodded. "Would you look at your left ankle?"

"My what?"

The stranger nodded to Doyoung's feet. Doyoung furrowed his eyebrows, unsure, but did as they said and bent down to roll up his pants. 

"What…?"

Doyoung blinked a few times, moving his ankle closer to the light. Right there, traced on his skin, was the drawing he knew by memory, the same dragon that also had a home in Yuta's neck. How had he not seen it before?

Doyoung parted his lips and looked up — and his breath hitched. The stranger had rolled up the sleeve of their shirt to show the dragon on his forearm, but Doyoung's shock wasn't because of that. It was because they had pulled down their handkerchief. 

The stranger smiled, and in the split of a second a thousand images flashed in front of Doyoung's eyes. In the split of a second, it all came back to him.

"Welcome back, Dons."

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> If you got to the end, thank you so much you deserve ten years' worth of Walmart products.
> 
> I hope you liked this mess <3 Originally everyone was going to die but what's the fun in that. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, thank you for reading!


End file.
